


brawls, bounds, and betrothals

by gurj14



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Marvel Cinematic Universe Fusion, Commander Lexa (The 100), F/F, Fighting, Out of bounds, Polis is a Realm, Powers and Abilities, pike getting the beating he deserves, warriors being warriors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-19 04:02:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29868870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gurj14/pseuds/gurj14
Summary: Clarke Griffin, Heiress to Skaikru Kingdom of the Polis Realm, has had a shitty couple of days. Framed for a crime she did so not commit, she manages to escape out of bounds to the Midgard Realm to get The Avengers help before the real culprit can succeed in his evil, villainous ways. All she needs to do is evade The Commander of Polis's Six Generals long enough to do so.
Relationships: Clarke Griffin/Lexa
Comments: 5
Kudos: 81
Collections: Clexaweek2021





	brawls, bounds, and betrothals

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to my beta chip!

“Commander,” Anya kneeled before the Commander of Polis, a young woman in appearance, serving her first century as Commander. 

Polis was a realm of thirteen warring clans, once war-torn and destitute, it now boasted incredible wealth and luxuries since the new Commander’s rule. Her quest to establish peace across the realm was restoring the pride and mending the people until a recent theft had everyone on edge. 

Their Commander was the most powerful chosen by their sacred flame, and all her subjects feared and revered her. Anya was not sure how to proceed when she heard the ice in her tone. 

“General.” 

The Commander was  _ not  _ in a good mood. And that was largely because of Clarke Griffin, Heiress to the kingdom of Skaikru, being imprisoned for the last three nights following the theft. 

Standing up, Anya delivered the news that was going to put her Commander in a mood far more foul than her current reverie. “It’s about your betrothed.”

The Commander sighed, fatigued and bitter, resting her cheek to her palm. 

“What’s she been accused of now?”

Anya braced herself. 

“She’s escaped, Commander.”

//

There was a clash and boom as Clarke’s traveling ship crashed into the land of the planet called ‘Earth.’ Here in the Midgard Realm, out of bounds from her home, she had followed the trail of the flame. 

She traced the energy signature of the real traitor, Charles Pike. The man was responsible for her season of misfortune. 

He had used some kind of his warlock magic to look like her, framing her as a thief so her people were forced to put her under arrest. While she was investigated, he had escaped. Impatient with the pace of investigative efforts to clear her, she freed herself and in time to chase him out of their realm. 

Whatever he was planning, it had something to do with this very planet. So, with no lead on his exact location and only a frailing trail of what he stole, she targeted the headquarters of this planet’s ‘guardians’ to employ their help. 

She stumbled out of her poorly landed ship, sighing at the awful damage. The gravity on this planet was not as strong as she was used to in her solar system, and she hadn’t calculated properly during the landing coming off of its fastest projection. It would need immense repairs. Just to make her shitty day even shittier. 

“Shit,” she put her hands on her hips and pouted. Raven was going to kill her. 

“And who are you?” A voice caught her attention. 

Clarke was not surprised to be met with a greeting crowd, having signaled her landing to where Earth’s claimed heroes ‘The Avengers’ resided. 

“Clarke Griffin,” she introduced herself, stepping away from her demolished ship. “Heiress to Skaikru Kingdom of the Polis Realm.” 

In front of her were supposedly Earth’s claimed best warriors who she had read up on during her flight: Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, Black Widow, and Hawkeye. They had managed to defend their planet from a tide of dark energy and Clarke was surprised with their lack of soldier’s uniform. 

“Which one of you turns into the green monster?” She curiously inquired, stepping forward. 

The meekest postured individual stepped back, and Clarke narrowed her eyes at him. 

“You? How?”

“Um, excuse me,” the guy in glasses, who Clarke also did not recognize, stepped forward. 

“You are excused,” Clarke told him, raising her chin. “I am to speak with you Avengers on an urgent matter.” 

The man in glasses was amused and extended his hands, “alright beautiful. I’m Tony Stark.” 

“Tony Stark?” Clarke started curiously at his hand, “why do you greet me so? Do you not fear germs in this realm?”

“Hey! I’ll have you know I am a germaphobe and I regularly use sanitizer thank you very much,” he grumbled, pulling his hand back to himself. 

“What brought you here, Clarke Griffin?” The broadest-chested man stepped forward, crossing his arms. 

“You are Captain America,” Clarke appraised him. “The leader?”

“Debatable,” said Tony Stark, and at the same time, the other longer blonde-haired man scoffed. 

“I am Prince Thor of Asgard,” he declared in a boasting manner. “And you are certainly one of the finest women in all the realms, Heiress Griffin.” 

Well, Clarke surmised, at least he addressed her title properly. 

“How many realms are there?” The only woman, red hair and calculating eyes asked. 

“Ten,” Clarke answered her. “Why is there only one woman in your team? And where is the man-made of iron?”

/

“I don’t understand,” Clarke sat at their table and observed the room curiously. 

“I told you, the suit is an invention--”

“No, that I understood Tony Stark,” Clarke promised him, not wanting to hear it all again. “I mean to say, why do you all have dual identities? You are Natasha Romanoff but also Black Widow, Clint Barton but Hawkeye, Man of Iron--”

“-- Iron Man. You just, you mixed up the words again there Griffin Clarke--”

“-- Steve Rogers but Captain America, you... I’m sorry I didn’t receive your name... are also The Hulk.” 

“You forgot me,” Thor pointed out. “I’m Prince Thor and also the Almighty Thor.” 

Everyone rolled their eyes. 

“The names in question are also very peculiarly selected,” Clarke’s confusion was hurting her head.

“Okay, Heiress from another realm,” Tony Stark changed the line of questioning. “We ask the questions now, why’d you signal us at headquarters with an SOS? What kind of advanced tech is that?”

“My apologies,” Clarke said. “I have never been to this realm and… I have also been in an enclosed space for the last three nights. I was curious. Though I know not of this SOS you speak, I have followed a threat to your realm.”

“What threat?” Steve asked, leaning forward in concern. 

“All I know is a man from my people escaped here with a lot of dark energy from our realm -- stolen from the most powerful energy source in all the realms, The Flame -- and he means you and your planet harm. I’m afraid that’s all I know, but I intend to help you find and stop him.” 

/

Thankfully, they listened. 

Clarke shared with them her detailed account of Charles Pike: Overlooked to become a General in ‘The Commander’s Six, he was enraged. He framed her with theft and then used her arrest and investigation as a means to escape to Earth. 

“My people think I am the thief, and they would have found out the truth eventually, but time was of the essence. I didn’t know it was him until I escaped and picked up the trail… I am afraid that I am one day’s journey behind him, and the trail is weaker.” 

“What’s this dark energy?” The Hulk and Iron Man, to Clarke’s amazement, were rather intelligent men and asked detailed questions of her tech. 

She showed them, as she had been using her own communicator and classified Army file on her projection display to do so. 

“This is The Flame. It's the ancient tech of our people, a power that selects its chosen Commander and bonds to them until the next. The Flame decides how much power to afford a Commander and leaves any Commander that abuses the power. Our current Commander is the most powerful of all time.” Clarke spoke the last part with pride before the dismay from leaving her betrothed without a word returned to her. 

“It can’t be moved and it’s heavily guarded… but Pike is a strong warlock, like me, which is why it was believable I was capable of taking the power myself. He somehow siphoned power from The Flame to bring it here. There’s enough power to destroy an entire planet in whatever he stole...” 

“Shit.” The one allied ‘Hawkeye’ paled, “from that tiny thing?”

“Old tech of the Gods,” Thor declared before turning to her. “Fear not damsel of Polis, The Avengers will help you.” 

Clarke didn’t miss the way everyone rolled their eyes again. 

“We need to find Pike before The Commander and her Army get here in twelve hours. It took me and Pike around twenty hours each to travel from our realms with the fastest fighter ships, but her fleet has advanced tech.” 

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Steve asked her. “If your Commander is so powerful, surely he can help us stop this Pike?”

“ _ She’s _ going to be furious.” Clarke rubbed her tired eyes, correcting his assumption. “To my people, it looks like  _ I’m  _ guilty. I escaped.” 

“But you’re  _ not  _ guilty,” Steve placed a hand on her shoulder in comfort when he noticed her distress. “You have risked a lot to come and warn us.”

“It’s not so simple,” Clarke felt tears filling her eyes. “They were conducting an investigation, they would have been able to find out the truth. She won’t appreciate that I escaped without telling her.”

“You’re someone of importance to her fleet?” The Black Widow asked, noticing the way Clarke carried herself. A fighter. A noble. 

“My kingdom, Skaikru, we’re in the aftermath of peace negotiations and a lot of that rides on me. If I’m seen as a traitor…my whole people suffer. And if I don’t find Pike before she gets here, she’ll make  _ you  _ all suffer.” 

“She sounds like a tyrant,” Steve said, arms crossed. “I’ve defeated such villains before.” 

Clarke shook her head, “no she’s nothing like that she just… she’s thinking of an entire realm. She’s always got to put our people first, even if she believed me innocent she needed this done properly.” 

//

“So it  _ was  _ Pike,” The Commander said, as Indra showed the proof of her investigation. 

“He used an advanced cloaking spell,” Indra turned away from the screen that projected Pike disguised as Clarke fleeing The Flame room after incapacitating the guards, side-by-side with the real Clarke Griffin who had been simply eating a street vendor’s candied delicacies in the capitol’s market at the same time. 

The Commander bristled. Leave it to Clarke to get framed for the most heinous of treasons while eating her sugared cane apples. 

“Excellent Indra. Now drop the charges against Clarke and her kingdom immediately. How's the trail’s signature going, Anya?”

“The Flame energy Pike stole is fading,” Anya answered dully. “But Clarke’s ship tracker is still on.”

“She would have gone where he is, I doubt she is with the ship,” said The Commander. “But that is of no consequence. More urgent is the need to find Pike, I will meditate and find the energy of Flame he robbed from our realm, it will heed my call to return to me. We will go directly there.” 

“Yes, Commander.” 

//

“Bruce and I, the geniuses that we are,” Tony Stark announced, “figured out the quantum pattern of the flame energy thingie.”

Bruce Banner, the name of the Hulk as Clarke found out, glared at Tony. 

“He got me coffee, and I figured it out.”

“Details. I had a long day of being a genius, I was a little under-caffeinated.” 

Bruce sighed and carried on. “This is where we are, this is him.”

“Where’s that?” Clarke asked them both, impatient to get to Pike and end this. 

“It’s on an uninhabited island,” Bruce explained to her, showing the hologram diagram. “But the energy source is growing.”

“Avengers, assemble,” Steve told his team. 

“What do you need to assemble?” Clarke asked, confused once again. 

Natasha sighed, “just follow me.” 

//

When they get to the island, a large black beam of energy pulses on the coast, the clouds already starting to collect into a storm. 

“That is definitely where the bad guy is,” Tony announced the obvious. 

“Pike!” Clarke is the first off the ship, the Avengers behind her, as she sees her once comrade near the havoc he is creating. “It’s over, PIke!”

Pike was shocked to see her, but his shock quickly turned to fury and he stepped away from the energy he was creating to throw a grenade of energy at Clarke. 

“You’re too late Heiress!”

Clarke rolled out of the way, dodging the deadly attack. She turned behind her, impressed to see the Avengers were all still on their feet, even the non-powered ones, from his energy blast. 

“You can’ stop me!” Pike yelled to them all. “You’re too late!”

“Why are you doing this?” Clarke yelled back at him, dodging another grenade. “Why did you frame me?”

A shadow passed them all, and the energy Pike had been hoping to expand on this planet disappeared. 

“No!” He yelled, distraught as the flame’s dark energy disappeared like the last wisps of a fire leaving behind ash and smoke. 

The clouds parted and the massive warship of The Commander of Polis extended a bridge as Six guards descended. 

“Surrender, Pike,” Indra, the leader of The Commander’s Six, raised her hands as two balls of energy lit up her fists. “Or die.” 

//

Clarke wasn’t sure what happened. Pike threw energy blasts at the Avengers, and somehow -- Hawkeye’s arrow was deflected and scratched Anya’s armour. 

Of all the armour’s to scratch, of course, it  _ had  _ to be Anya’s. 

Then it was an all-out brawl of The Avengers against The Six as Clarke rolled her eyes at them all and tried to catch Pike by his thick ankles. 

Thor’s head was being repeatedly punched by Anya, who, after breaking Hawkeye’s bows in anger and kicking him to the sand, had decided to punch the royal Asgardian’s face. 

Iron Man was flying, and the best archers Lincoln and Ryder kept their bows trained on him. 

Octavia was having fun, testing out what technique Natasha was trying on her even though she was much stronger than the human. 

Gustus was exchanging happy blows with Steve’s impressive shield, taking a wincing hit to his head before Indra stepped in and slashed her sword -- leader to leader they exchanged a flurry of blows. 

Bruce finally roared and turned into the Hulk, seeing his team struggling. It was then, right after his fist hit the ground, a green being ready to explode in rage, that everything froze. 

Clarke dreaded the plume of black smoke that extended as The Commander had quite literally stopped their fighting. 

Wordless, unimpressed, and all too pinching with her quiet anger. 

“Fighting like children, my own valued Generals,” she spoke, waving her fingers and causing a lineup of all the fighters to stand before her. 

“You leave Clarke to fight Pike. Alone. The very  _ reason  _ we are here is to apprehend him, not engage in impractical and senseless  _ fencing _ .”

The Commander’s glare was followed by her energy-releasing her Six Generals, and Clarke, from their hold. 

The generals all kneeled immediately. 

“Forgive us, Commander,” they said, ashamed even though they all knew Clarke was stronger than Pike. 

Much softer, lighter, and daresay sweeter -- The Commander next turned her attention to her standing betrothed. 

“Clarke.” 

“Lexa,” Clarke was relieved to see her. 

“You were to wait as I requested until the investigation was complete.” 

Clarke explained herself. “Time was of the essence, Lexa.” 

“I was here, was I not?”

“You would have never come this fast if you were not chasing me,” Clarke reasoned -- her voice raising. “He was going to destroy this planet!” 

“Then it would have been destroyed,” Lexa said impassively. 

“There are billions who live on it!” Clarke said, horrified, her betrothed was being so flippant. “There was no time, Lexa!” 

“You foolishly went _ out of bounds  _ from our realm, Clarke!” Lexa raised her voice in timber back. “You went after Pike while he had the energy of The Flame! You could have died here with this planet!” 

“There was no time!” 

“You should have come to me!”

“You were not visiting me!”

“I needed to appear and maintain objectivity! I can not be seen having objectivity while visiting you during an investigation!” 

“Fine!” Clarke was furious with her, flushed in her cheeks. “You have made your points  _ Commander.  _ Release the Avengers.” 

Lexa looked at the still frozen squad. “This green one is fascinating.” 

“Lexa.” 

With a sigh, whatever energy had kept some of the strongest in their known universe from moving released them to move.

“You’re the Commander of Polis?” Thor asked, flabbergasted to see a woman shorter and smaller than him. “You’re short.” 

Lexa looked him up and down before turning to Clarke, “you did not defeat this Asgardian? Does he not know Polis’s children are stronger than their men -- without our magic?” 

“Lexa.”

Lexa scoffed before waving her fingers again, bringing Pike over to her. This time the black smoke around their feet curled over his arms and legs, binding him in place before she released her freeze on him and his mouth was free to speak. 

“Pike,” she said his name with contempt and then gestured to her generals who all stood from their kneeling positions.

Clarke winced when Gustus, woozy from Captain America’s shield, needed help to stand. 

“Why did you do it? Speak true.” 

Pike screamed his frustrations, “you selected such an inexperienced warrior to be Heir of Skaikru over me so you could have her! You allowed entry of those young fools--” his chin gestured to Octavia and Lincoln, “-- to be in your General guard over me! Have I not bled and died for you? For this coalition?”

“Your kingdom is in peace negotiations and you endangered them all with your actions.” 

“It was to be  _ my _ kingdom! Not Griffin’s!” 

“I see,” Lexa observed him coldly. “Charles Pike, you have acted in treason against your Realm, your Kingdom, and your Commander. You have fought in battle with me, it is true, but you are not the one who resolved your kingdom’s grievances. Clarke is. The reason you were not selected for my guard is the same reason you are bound before me today. You are untrustworthy. I know it because The Flame feels it.” 

“Why were you here on this planet,” Clarke asked him, sad for a man so angry and vengeful he would sacrifice billions. 

“He was going to use The Flame to absorb all living energy from this planet, and aim it at Polis's realm,” Lexa answered for them all. “There are few planets with such billions of people in the realms… I have always known his plans.” 

Clarke turned to Lexa, surprised and peeved, “you could have told me.” 

Lexa looked confused before turning back to Pike. “Today, you die for your actions. Your fight is over, traitor.” 

The Commander stepped back, raising her arms where the black energy manifested into the shape of a sword, she plunged it forward, and Pike barely heard her words before his last breath left his body. 

The smoke disappeared all around and Lexa turned to the shocked Avengers before looking to Clarke. 

“We leave immediately.” 

“You are unbelievable! You knew this whole time and you let me -- you didn’t! Agh!” Clarke stormed away from her. 

“Clarke?” Lexa watched her betrothed walk away, not comprehending the anger. “Where are you going?”

//

Clarke had gone back to the Avenger’s headquarters with the Avengers, ignoring Lexa and seething in her betrayed distress. 

“How could she keep that from me? Lie to me?”

Bruce observed her pacing, now curious of the kind of powers they had in his realm. 

Thor held an ice pack to his bruised face, it was starting to heal. “Asgard and Polis have a history, my father spoke of it… if I had gotten a chance to use my hammer she wouldn’t have been able to hit me so frequently!” 

“But you didn’t get a chance,” Natasha said, both her and Clint in awe of the fighting styles they had watched. 

Thor scoffed. 

“So your people are like Thor’s people?” Clint asked their fuming guest eagerly. 

Clarke paused, snapping from herself to regard her newfound friends. “All realms are different. In appearance we all share so much, in cultures and technology and, well, the magic we are different. All people in Polis are trained warriors. The Flame gifts all with powers, but some like my comrades you met, are much more powerful and seasoned warriors.” 

“That girl,” Tony was not in his usual joking mood. “That girl, your Commander… she just waved her fingers and we all… that is  _ too  _ much power.”

“How were our powers suspended?” Bruce picked up his questioning. “The Hulk couldn’t  _ move _ .”

“That kind of power…” Steve trailed off, looking seriously at Clarke. “We appreciate you saving our planet, Clarke. But your Commander…”

“She won’t do anything,” Clarke promised them, sensing their fear and wonder. “We’ll discuss a treaty before we leave, to soothe your concerns.”

//

Lexa stared at the lack of chairs in the crowded room. Anya was still upset over her scratched armour, but The Six were quiet now. 

“I’m here. I’ll listen. Then, we leave.” Lexa told Clarke.

“You promise these Avengers you will never attack them?” Clarke crossed her arms. 

Lexa agreed only if, “provided they never attack us, of course. Our realms can stay peacefully ignorant of each other’s existence once again. Is that all, Heiress Griffin?” 

Her tone was layered in sarcasm and Clarke glared at her. 

“Is there a room where me and The  _ Commander  _ can talk in private?” Clarke asked them, from gritted teeth. 

“We have a soundproofed room right --um -- right over there,” Tony gestured and guided them to another room. 

“Sorry about your armour,” Clint told Anya. “I was aiming for the Pike guy’s shoulder.” 

Anya regarded him for a moment and grumbled out, “it’s  _ fine _ . I suppose I broke your weapons.” 

“Your punch is dastardly,” Thor grimaced through his split lip. Anya smiled. 

“You fight like a foolish drunk in one of our taverns, are you sure you’re a Prince?”

“How dare--” Thor stood and The Six stood up at the ready for round two, until Tony ran eagerly back into the room. 

“Okay I put them in the conservatory room so we can…” he smugly used his technology to open up a projector screen showing Clarke and Lexa in the room. “Listen.” 

“You dare spy on our Commander,” Indra turned to him, menacing. “I will slit your throat.” 

“Uh, right,” Tony tried his best charming grin. “ _ Or _ you can watch with us.” 

Gustus rubbed his aching head, still woozy from Captain America’s shield hitting his skull, “she may tell Clarke what she plans to punish us all with for fighting these fools.” 

Indra glanced at the screen where Clarke and Lexa were still at a standstill. 

“I also need something to hold against Clarke,” Octavia admitted. “She always has something over me.” 

“This is not us spying,” Natasha assured them. “We’re doing it with your knowledge. This is us listening in on a conversation that involves our wellbeing.”

The Six Generals all shared looks and then, nodded. “Fine.” 

//

Lexa kept her hands steady, folded behind her back. She could feel Clarke’s anger still, but she was equally upset. 

“Are you going to say anything, Clarke? You asked to speak.” Lexa was the first to give in. 

“You!” Clarke yelled at her, finger pointed. “Lexa you  _ lied _ to me!” 

“I did not lie,” Lexa said simply. “I withheld information that didn’t concern you.”

“Didn’t concern me? I was imprisoned! Framed! I -- I feared the lives of this planet!”

“I was aware of what one might do with The Flame and I was aware that this planet was on the list.”

“And would you have been so urgent to come here and apprehend Pike if I was not here?”

Lexa raised her voice, “of course! I am not so heartless, Clarke! This planet should know I don’t care so they fear me, but I do -- of course, I care. Lives are precious, whether from our realm or this one and I am The Commander of The Flame!” 

“You couldn’t tell me?” Clarke was still angry at her betrothed’s lack of forthcoming details.

“Time was of the essence.”

“I’m your betrothed, Lexa!” Clarke yelled at her before turning her back and walking away, head hung. “I’m not just anyone.” 

The silence was deafening for a tense moment before Clarke felt a gentle hand on her shoulder. 

“Clarke.”

Clarke turned around, feeling gentle fingers tilt her chin up. She saw rare pain in Lexa’s eyes, regret, and love. 

“It’s because of you that I had to do what I did. Please understand.”

“I understand, Lexa,” Clarke’s anger left her veins, and then she looked up from her lashes and asked Lexa her next point of discussion. “What are you going to do to the generals?”

“They will be adequately punished,” Lexa dropped her fingers, annoyance on her face. “They ignored my command.”

“I had Pike handled, Lexa,” Clarke pressed her hands to the collars of Lexa’s coat before winding her arms around Lexa’s neck. “They had no way of knowing the Avengers were helping me.”

“Clarke…” Lexa felt the warmth of her betrothed’s body and gulped as Clarke toyed with a lock of her brown hair. 

“Be easy on them, please?”

//

“Woah,” Bruce turned the screen right off before Clarke leaned in to kiss Lexa. 

“Let’s see how good the Heiress is at negotiating you guys from mommy grounding you.” Tony teased the generals. 

“I may not understand those words but I feel they were an insult,” Anya glares at him back. 

“So Clarke is betrothed to your Commander?” Steve asked, curious. “Like an old-timey engagement?”

“Engagement?” Gustus was confused by the word. 

“Engaged to be married, to wed,” Thor spoke. 

“What is ‘married’?” Octavia was confused. 

“Betrothals,” Lincoln spoke up for the first time to explain. “Committed relationships of intention between two consenting parties. We all have a betrothed, one we love… or we do not. Sometimes we break up the betrothal, sometimes we work out and last centuries or lifetimes. Is that not what you do as a species?”

“Sounds like we should,” Natasha said, perfectly serious. 

//

“If you ever seek aid, reach out to Heiress Clarke of the Skaikru Kingdom. She will confer with me, as a voluntary ambassador to your planet.” 

Lexa turned to her Generals. 

“My Generals will apologize for the fighting. And we will leave. May we meet again, Avengers.” 

She turned on her heel and walked onto her ship, leaving her Generals and Clarke with their newfound friends. 

“Well, it was a blast, Clarke. You’re brave.” Steve saluted her, not offering a handshake. 

Clarke smiled, “you as well Captain. Until we meet again.” 

Clarke ascended the ship next and then the Generals all took one breath in and said ‘sorry.’ 

“Is that your punishment?” Thor sounded amused, knowing how difficult it was for soldiers of their standings to apologize. 

“I would have preferred a week in the dungeons,” Indra admitted, solemnly. 

//

  
  
  
_fin_.   
  
  



End file.
